Tipperary hurling goalkeeper Darren Gleeson has denied charges of stealing a total of €32,000 from a financial services client.

Mr Gleeson (35), of Shesharoe, Portroe, Co Tipperary, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of stealing a total of €32,000 from a Timothy Heenan in 2013, and two alternate counts of obtaining the same monies by deception.

His trial got under way yesterday morning at Nenagh circuit court.

Mr Gleeson was Tipperary's goalkeeper when they won the All-Ireland senior hurling final against Kilkenny last September, and was a substitute when his county won the title back in 2010.

At the end of the evidence yesterday, defence counsel Johnny Walsh raised a legal issue which was discussed in the absence of the jury. Judge Thomas Teehan will give his ruling this morning on Mr Walsh's application.

Earlier the court heard how Mr Gleeson told gardaí he had a gambling problem but denied he used €32,000 given to him by a client to fund this.

Mr Gleeson told gardaí in 2015, who were investigating a "suspicious" transaction made to his bank account from Mr Heenan's bank account, that cheques for €22,000 and €10,000 made out by Mr Heenan to Mr Gleeson in 2013 represented a loan.

The court has heard that he was a director of Gleeson Moloney Financial Services in Nenagh and Timothy Heenan was a client. The cheques were written on June 25 and November 29 of 2013.

It also heard that Mr Gleeson told gardaí: "I will not deny I had a problem with gambling. I'm in a process to recover from a problem I had with gambling. But I never asked for money for the problem with gambling."